his own. for president obama, there was no time to wait. secretary shinseki offered me his own resignation. with considerable regret, i accepted. according to white house officials, the resignation of veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki was over in one hour. first he met many the oval office with the president, chief of staff and the top white house aide now overseeing the v.a. then the president and shinseki went for a walk for a private conversation. minutes later obama said shinseki concluded he was too much of a distraction. so my assessment was up fortunately that he was right. i regret that he has to resign under these circumstances. reporter: shinseki s departure came as an audit was released that found facilities around the country were flagged for further review because of concerns about questionable scheduling practices.
and i have asked for removal of all of the v.a. leaders, and we will enforce accountability for those who have tolerated or been responsible for the improper scheduling practices at the phoenix v.a. and let me hear what you heard from him and did he go far enough? yes, what he said is what has happened is beyond words and irreprehensible and those people responsible have to be fired as quickly as possible, tomorrow the, and those practices have to be eliminated. what i also want to say is that we need to pass the accountability bill and which have one that is going to make sense and try to get it up on the floor in a couple of days, but furthermore, the new york times reported that at the heart of the issue, chris, is the fact that people don t lie
scheduling practices. so it wasn t just phoenix or a few other places. there s a systematic problem or a systemic problem all over the problem right now and that in the end shinseki realized himself he couldn t go on. i think the problem is that i mean, these are issues that veterans groups and some reporters have been covering for literally years discussing the long wait times and excessive wait times and resulting in damaged health for veterans if not worse for some. if there have been audits and inspector general investigations and government accountability office reports on this. the problem is that it finally got the attention of the national media and the public. that s what changed. there s nothing particularly new about this interim report that came out earlier this week from the inspector general or the
resign under these circumstances. reporter: shinseki s departure came as the v.a. released an audit of its health system that found facilities around the country were flagged for further review because of concerns about questionable scheduling practices. the v.a. secretary claiming his own officials have been lying to him. i was too trusting of some, and i accepted as accurate reports that i now know to have been misleading with regard to wait times. reporter: the president said the white house was also in the dark that v.a. officials were concealing wait times. this issue of scheduling is one that the reporting systems inside of the vha did not surface to the level where rick was aware of it or we were able to see it. reporter: over at the capitol, house speaker john boehner had his own rapid response, that shinseki s departure is not enough. his resignation, though, does not absolve the president of his
secret waiting list in phoenix alone and there were concerns they could get lost or forgotten. average veterans were there 115 days waiting for an appointment. the acting inspector general concluded inappropriate scheduling practices are systemic throughout. so when you hear the word systemic that says a lot more than just phoenix. there was some thought there was 26 facet. now we are hearing 42 facility. but va officials will be asked about all the fat silt under their leadership. about all the facilities under their leadership. martha: this has broken the dam wide open and sparked a tidal wave of calls for eric shinseki to step down. it s time for secretary